FOOTBALL: Cy Falls rolls past Cy Springs, 56-14

Published 7:10 pm, Saturday, September 15, 2012

This season is the culmination of what started four years ago for Cypress Falls wide receivers Temi Alaka and Jacorey Warrick.

They were just freshmen then. Now, Cy Falls has two of the best wide receivers in the district and they’re a big reason why.

“Me and Jacorey, we’ve been playing together since freshman year,” Alaka said. “We moved up at the same time, so we’ve just been pushing each other through these last four years. We try to get better. Sometimes, I play some defense on him or he plays some defense on me. We know each other’s tendencies and that just makes us better. So, it starts in practice and out on the field. Hopefully we see results.”

The Golden Eagles certainly produced results Saturday at the Berry Center.

Cy Falls cruised to a 56-14 win against Cy Springs in both teams’ 17-5A district opener.

There were a lot of players who contributed to the win, but it’s hard to ignore Alaka and Warrick.

Warrick - a Texas commit - exploded for nine catches for 197 yards and three touchdowns. Alaka had three catches for 77 yards and two touchdowns, doing his damage in the first half.

Not to go unnoticed is Cy Falls wide receivers Jermel Holmes and Noah Fernandez. Both made big plays Saturday night. Cy Falls running back Bryce Peters had 14 carries for 153 yards and two touchdowns.

Cameron Henkhaus completed 18 of 21 passes for 372 yards and five touchdowns and one interception. He got hurt in the third quarter after a hard hit and did not return. Joseph Gicas and later Nate Dalton took his place.

A Cy Springs team that’s rebuilding simply didn’t have an answer for Cy Falls, which is expected to compete for a district championship this season.

The Panthers did see some results offensively, though. Junior quarterback Troy Brown was 15 of 33 for 141 yards. He also had 20 rushes for 55 yards and a touchdown. Terrence Jackson threw a 63-yard touchdown pass to Kevin Lovings, which accounted for the Panthers’ other score.

For Cy Falls, Warrick said he’s glad to see the team progressing, even though there is room for improvement.

“We definitely picked up the tempo from last week,” he said. “There are still a bunch of areas for improvement. It wasn’t a perfect game by far, but we still managed to execute drives and finish drives and make big plays.”

The only worry for the Golden Eagles right now is Henkhaus’ status. The senior quarterback took a hard hit and Eaton said his head may have bounced on the ground. Eaton also said the training staff will evaluate Henkhaus further this week.

Having Henkhaus for Week 3 is imperative. The Golden Eagles entered the year as a trendy pick to win 17-5A and while they’ve looked great, the wins against Oak Ridge and Cy Springs haven’t tested Cy Falls.

As Eaton said, the matchup against a 2-0 Cy Creek team on Saturday will be that first test for Cy Falls.

“Coach (Greg) McCaig has got them really playing,” he said. “I saw them at the (Cy) Ranch game. He’s kind of gone back offensively to the scheme that he started with in the district and he’s got it clicking. His young quarterback stepped up because of an injury unfortunately to (Dylan) Pugliese - a great family in this district and a great quarterback. Bobby Chan-Chan making big plays everywhere. So, we’ve got our work cut out for us.”

Scoring touchdowns was probably the best thing the Panthers could take away from this game. They were blanked in Zero Week against Mayde Creek.

An interesting aspect of Cy Springs’ offense is the use of the Swinging Gate formation, which puts the offensive line with the exception of the center on one side of the field, leaving the quarterback and running back unprotected.

It’s an unusual formation and it stumped Cy Falls a few times. Cy Springs also runs the Statue of Liberty play, made famous by Boise State.

First-year Cy Springs coach Rick Cobia said his players love running plays like that and it brings some excitement around the team.

“I thought our kids did a good job coming out this week,” he said. “We scored some touchdowns, had two touchdowns called back, dropped multiple passes - stuff we can continue to work on. The big thing I was really proud of was their effort. It was four quarters, we just played hard. We just have to fix some of the little things.”